Christmas is the feast of children and of the Divine Child that hides within every adult. The belief that God came near to humankind in the form of a child is enormously inspiring. Thus no one can claim that it is just an unfathomable mystery, fascinating on the one hand and terrifying on the other. No. He came close to us in the fragility of a newborn who whimpered from the cold and hungrily sought the maternal breast. We have to respect and love this form in which God chose to enter our world, through the rear, in a grotto of animals, on a dark and snowy night, “because there was no room for him in the inns of Bethlehem.”
Even more consoling is the idea that we will be judged by a child and not by a stern and scrutinizing judge. What a child wants is to play. He immediately forms an affinity with other children, poor, rich, Asian, black, or blond…He is original innocence because he does not yet know the maliciousness of adult life.
The Divine Child will introduce us into the celestial dance and the banquet that the divine family of Father, Son and Holy Spirit has prepared for all its sons and daughters, without excluding those who once were torn by suffering.
I was reflecting on this blessed situation when an angel like those who sang to the shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem approached me spiritually and gave me a Christmas card. From whom could it be? I began to read. It said:
“Dear little brothers and sisters:
If when looking at the nativity and seeing the Child Jesus there between Mary and Joseph, next to the ox and the mule, you are filled with faith that God became a child like any one of you; if you are able to see in other boys and girls the ineffable presence of Jesus the Child, who once was born in Bethlehem and has never left us alone in the world since; if you are able to make the hidden child be reborn in your parents, your uncles and aunts and other people you know so that love, tenderness, and caring for the whole world and also for nature well up in them; if when looking at the manger you discover Jesus, poorly clad, almost naked, and you remember how many children are equally poorly clothed, and this situation wounds you to the bottom of your hearts, and you can share your surplus and want to change this state of affairs right now; if when seeing the cow, the donkey, the sheep, the goats, the dogs, the camels and the elephant in the nativity, you think that the whole universe is also lit by the Divine Child and that we are all part of the Great House of God;
if you look up to the heavens and see the star with its luminous tail and remember that there is always a star like the one of Bethlehem over you, that accompanies you, shines on you, and shows you the best paths;
if you remember that the Three Kings who came from far off lands, were really wise men and that still today they represent the scientists and teachers who are able to see the secret meaning of life and the universe in this Child;
if you believe that this Child is simultaneously (Hu)man and God, that, being (Hu)man, He is your brother and, being God, a part of God exists in you, and therefore you are filled with joy and real pride;if you believe all this, know that I am born again and Christmas has come anew among you. I will always be near, walking with you, weeping with you and playing with you, until the day when all — humankind and universe — reach the House of God, who is Father and Mother of infinite goodness, to live together forever and be eternally happy.
Bethlehem. December 25, Year 1,
Signed:
The Child Jesus
Merry Christmas from myself and my husband Joe and our companion Friskie.
Rev. Bob